All posts tagged Karen Gillan

“Selfie,” the much-maligned ABC comedy starring “Doctor Who’s” Karen Gillan and “Harold and Kumar”’s John Cho, had its 22 minutes in the hot prime-time sun last night, and it’s still unclear whether the show’s pre-emptive critical fire-hosing has doomed it.

Hopefully not. Although the premiere’s ratings were mediocre (4.9 million viewers and just 1.4 ratings in the key 18-49 demo), a slow groundswell of critics and viewers has begun to gather in support of the series, its unique premise (if you’ve been sealed in a Twitterless cave, it’s a modern-day update of George Bernard Shaw’s classic “Pygmalion”) and of course, its incredibly charming stars.

The show has problems. A lot of them have to do with the writing, which in its too-earnest attempt to cast a knowing wink at the Millennial audience, trips over self-indulgence and lands face-first in a steaming pile of condescension.

And yes, the biggest script issues have to do with a bizarre misunderstanding of social media and how its young users see it, engage with it and immerse themselves in it. These issues could’ve been avoided — and fortunately, many of them are still fixable. Read More »

In TV on the Radio‘s new video for “Happy Idiot,”Pee Wee Herman gets back on the road for another adventure, but this time he’s a bit more mobile. Playing the part of “Racer Steve,” Herman takes viewers on a drive through the desert in a classic powder-blue race car. But racing isn’t on his mind. Instead, we see flashes of a mystery girl (played by “Doctor Who”/“Guardians of the Galaxy” star Karen Gillan) on the side of the road, dressed up in cheerleading outfits, pouring ice-cold drinks, and of course, riding a vintage-looking red bicycle.

The video appeared this morning on Funny or Die, but it’s hardly a laugh riot. Instead, Pee Wee seems like he desperately wants to connect to someone as he’s slowly losing his mind – or maybe he just misses Large Marge.

“Happy Idiot” is the first single from TV on the Radio’s next album, “Seeds,” due out November 18 on Harvest Records.

Amelia Pond is grown up. She wears reading glasses now and has lines around her eyes. At one point during the episode, River warns her not the let the Doctor see her age. Amy takes this to heart and takes action so the Doctor, and audience, will never see her grow old.

But first, it’s 2012 and the Doctor, Amy and Rory are in Central Park.

Rory goes off for coffee while the Doctor reads aloud to Amy from a detective novel by Melody Malone. He rips out the last page, though, because he hates endings.

Rory couldn’t find a coffee cart for some reason and is walking ten blocks with three lattes. He passes a fountain with cherubs and hears giggling. Read More »

Karen Gillan at the Doctor Who U.S. Premiere Screening at the Ziegfeld Theatre in NYC

The Weeping Angels won’t be the only ones with tears in their eyes this weekend.

The frightening monsters return in the “Doctor Who” mid-season finale “The Angels Take Manhattan,” an episode that also features the final appearance of the Doctor’s loyal companions, Amy and Rory Pond.

“In the final scene I had to shoot, it’s not even acting. It’s just real,” said Karen Gillan, who has played the Doctor’s companion Amy Pond since season five. “I watched it for the first time and cried my eyes out.”

In ancient Egypt, 1334 B.C. to be precise, the Doctor is trying to leave behind Nefertiti when he receives a news alert. The two of them head off the future, 2367 A.D., to find a spaceship the size of Canada is headed toward Earth. A military officer warns the Doctor if it gets too close, she’ll have to shoot it down with missiles.

Not wanting that, the Doctor recruits a gang: big-game hunter Riddell from 1912 A.D. and the Ponds. When he picks up Amy and Rory he inadvertently brings along Rory’s father, Brian, played by Mark Williams. Rory must have been kicked out of the Burrow for being blond. Read More »

The season premier of ‘Doctor Who’ gives us zombies, more Daleks than we’ve ever seen in one location, the break-up and make-up of one of one of our most loved couples and a new companion. There are also new credits with a fresh font and Dalek bumps on the logo. All in 45 minutes that seem more like a movie than an episode of television.

We open on Skaro, the homeworld of the Doctor’s most iconic enemies: the Daleks. A woman has contacted the Doctor. He realizes it’s is a trap just as a Dalek eyestalk bursts out of her forehead.

Meanwhile, Amy Pond, supermodel, is interrupted during a photo shoot. An assistant tells her that her husband is there, but she replies, “I don’t have a husband.” Rory sits in a makeup chair with divorce papers. She quickly signs them and he storms out. What happened to our beloved Ponds?

“These are the biggest episodes we’ve ever shot,” Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond, said of the five episodes that lead to the exit of her character from Doctor Who.

The long-running British show returns Saturday, Sept. 1, in both the U.K. and U.S. The five-episode arc that opens season seven says goodbye to the Ponds, Amy and Rory, a married couple who have been the Doctor’s traveling companions since season five.

Read more of what Gillan and Matt Smith had to say after the jump. Read More »

Two weeks ago, actress and singer Patti LuPone grabbed a cell phone out of the hand of an audience member who was texting during a performance of her current play, "Shows for Days." The bold move led to an outpouring of support from fans fed up with glowing screens. Ms. LuPone gives us her five rules of theater etiquette.